Oh wow, I didn't know this guy was still going. Interesting article. Dawa Sangpo declared himself 17th Karmapa as a toddler. The 16th Karmapa not being actually dead at that point did not seem to be an obstacle for him. I also didn't know that his candidature was backed by the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul. F...

Well this has been a long time coming but so glad to see it. There has been a lot of uninformed speculation on the internet that Karmapa's prolonged stay in the US could be a sign he was persona non grata in India. Cleary this is not true with this decision. Hopefully too it is a sign that the "Chin...

Doubt that there will a publicly recognised Shamar Tulku who is female, though. TD will struggle enough to have any Shamarpa he recognizes accepted outside his group without making a non-traditional choice of a girl.

I have a treasured memory of Khenpo Tsultrim singing to a small group of us on Holy Isle in Scotland about 15 years ago. We'd crossed to the island on a rowing boat through the mist on a foggy evening to meet him. It was like a mystical journey straight out of movie.

I encountered these guys on the High Line in New York a while back. It's a well-known scam outta China, They are not monks. They buy the robes. Sell the trinkets or whatever for "donations". Don't give to them. See this report: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NYC-Buddhist-Leaders-Warn-Tourists...

Too much attention to this Jayarava guy -- the fact remains that Nattier is a more than reputable scholar, and there is a very good argument for the case that one of the versions of the Heart Sutra was indeed back-translated from Chinese. Doesn't matter if her conclusion was taken up by somebody wi...

CTR had a highly developed sense of fun. He also sent himself up frequently. As well as not taking various elements of Buddhist customs over- seriously. If he declared so and so to be a 'tulku' the possibility that he was making a point about others taking things too seriously should not be discoun...

I once met Seonaidh Perks about 20 years ago when he tried to visit a Dharma Centre in Dublin I was attending. He had spoken I think at another Shambhala centre and he think he had impressed some of the folks there with his stories of Trungpa. He's like a few characters I've known over the years who...

I think it was pretty difficult to be vegetarian on the Tibetan plateau. Vegetables were relatively few and the growing season short. Some lamas such as Shabkar were vegetarian but I think they were seen the exception rather than the rule. The XVIIth Karmapa has made the following statement for his ...

I'm very serious. Trump appealed to Americans across the board, and I even know a Canadian gay rights activist and fellow Buddhist who was rooting for him from the north because of Trump's policies on immigration. Trump represents American strength and, at best, stern, fatherly compassion that does...

Indeed, I bet Dubya is secretly elated to be not the worse president ever any more. There's a fb meme about it. :coffee: Kim Personally, I'm quite proud that president Trump is guiding our nation, and I know that many Americans of varying races, ages, and genders feel the same. I am going to assume...

Pimping and sex trafficking certainly add an immoral element to it. But I am not seeing how prostituting out of despeation necessarily makes paying for it immoral. I think it needs to be shown here how selling sex out of desperation is morally different from selling a homeless' newsletter out of de...

At least gold digging or prostitution leaves your dignity intact. Seriously? I think you just undermined your entire argument there. You have quite obviously never worked in Silicon Valley. Or encountered irony before. Actually I do work for a Silicon Valley company as it happens. But there is a qu...

All of us that have sexual partners are using them for our own pleasure, as our partners are likewise relying on us. For samsaric beings, every action *including* seemingly altruistic acts are tinged with selfishness. If one partner wants the bliss of sexual union and the other partner primarily wa...